Fervo Energy accelerates the process of underground heat extraction, enabling renewable geothermal energy to play a greater role in electricity production in the United States.
The latest drilling breakthrough made headlines in Renewable Energy Magazine and The Salt Lake Tribune, among others, for cutting the time it takes to complete a borehole by 70 percent.
Geothermal energy accounts for just under half a percent of total large-scale electricity production in the United States, according to the government. But the latest news could significantly increase that statistic. In fact, underground heat is already powering Google data centers, Seequent reports.
To access the heat, experts must drill into the Earth’s crust. That’s where Fervo has made great strides, using insights gained from the dirty energy fracking process. At the Utah Cape Station project, the drilling team drilled into solid granite, completing the hole in an astonishing 21 days, according to the sites and press releases.
“We believe Cape has at least 2 gigawatts of geothermal potential,” Chelsea Anderson, strategic communications specialist at Fervo, told the Tribune.
It’s part of a sprawling project that could include about two dozen wells. The goal is to pump 90 megawatts of continuous power by 2026 and expand to a larger 400-megawatt facility by 2028, the Tribune reported.
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“The demand for clean energy available 24 hours a day has never been greater and next-generation geothermal energy is ideally suited to meet this demand,” said Fervo CEO Tim Latimer, according to the outlet.
Geothermal heat takes advantage of the extremely high temperatures deep underground, either by harnessing the hot water that is already there or by heating water that is sent down. The hot H2O is typically used to drive a turbine on the Earth’s surface to generate electricity. There are a variety of setups, all of which harness the Earth’s temperatures to create cleaner, more abundant energy, as described in a Department of Energy video clip.
These are deeper projects than home-based systems, which are great options to help homeowners reduce their heating and cooling bills. There are significant tax credits available to cover up to 30% of the cost, depending on the timing.
The government has high hopes for the technology, citing studies that say there is potential for 60-90 gigawatts of “electricity generating capacity, more than 17,000 district heating systems and up to 28 million geothermal heat pumps” by 2050. That would reduce air pollution equivalent to removing 26 million cars from the road, according to the Department of Energy.
Fervo’s horizontal drilling technique, borrowed in part from the fossil fuel industry, drills 8,000 feet deep before going 5,000 feet horizontally. Fracking opens cracks in the hot rock, which fills with water. It is heated and pumped back to the surface for use in a repeat process, according to a Tribune explanation.
Other projects are digging even deeper. Massachusetts-based Quaise Energy wants to drill 12 miles into the Earth to reach super-high temperatures, bringing the energy to the surface to power turbines at old dirty-energy plants.
Fracking has long had its detractors. Many of the concerns revolve around water use and pollution specific to fossil fuel projects. The Natural Resources Defense Council notes that it’s difficult to control how far the fractures extend. There’s a chance they could reach natural fault lines or drinking water deposits, causing contamination.
According to published reports, Fervo has hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, successful operations and a demand for clean energy as a prerequisite for its continued operations.
The faster drilling capacity will only contribute to the growth of the sector.
“Faster and more reliable drilling speeds delivery and reduces costs for geothermal projects,” Selene Law, senior associate at the Cleantech Group, told Renewable Energy Magazine.
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